Digital Art Center Celebrates One Year Anniversary in White Plains

Rob Kissner, president of the Digital Arts Experience in White Plains, admits that things were rough in the early going after the center opened on July 11, 2012.

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago when the center was contemplating closing down.

“We’re very different than our original plan sort stated we would be at this point,” Kissner said Thursday during a gathering celebrating the center’s one year anniversary.

“We held true to our core values and we sort of transformed from what we originally planned,” Kissner said.

The center, located at 170 Hamilton Avenue,  is private  learning center aimed at providing educational opportunities for the digital arts and technology in the Westchester community. It provides workshops and classes for teens and adults in literacy in the Westchester community. There, teens, adults and small business owners took classes in a number areas, including 3D animation, website  design and video production.

“We’re trying to do what the school districts can’t for the kids,” Kissner said. “School districts provide great facilities and they provide great programming, but it’s hard for a district with budgetary concerns to stay on top of technology. What we’re trying to do is stay at the forefront of that and give the youth of the community the opportunity to work around seasoned professionals.”

Kissner, who worked as music producer for most of his professional life, said he tried to model the center in way that mirrored the kind of educational experiences he wanted to have growing up. Unfortunately, he found it was hard to fill up enough classes to cover expenses in the early going.  

Soon, the center began to diversify and off its space to professionals in the community that needed a place to work. This move provided the center with the additional revenue that it needed to stay afloat, according to Kissner.

“We’ve really become a community of creative professionals,” Kissner said. “We have four businesses working out of our offices upstairs. We have approximately 15 individuals that use our space as office space. They network and work together and it’s sort of this cool collective, creative effort. We’ve gone beyond education and created a community.”

White Plains Mayor Tom Roach said the center is one of the businesses that are helping to project a more progressive image for the city.

“Having a group like Digital Arts here is part of that recipe that I think is going to change this city for the better and keep it moving forward in a very competitive environment,” Roach said during Thursday's event.

Kissner said there is still much more for the Digital Arts Center to accomplish in the future.

“We’re want to grow in the community and expand our classes and the ultimate goals is to move on to second and, possibly, third location,” Kissner said.